Another Lame Post about my cats

I swore I wasn't going to blog today. I thought, "Egads, I'm gonna be too busy cleaning and cooking to post on the blog.. besides, I'm running out of things to blog about.."


That was until I was eating breakfast this morning. I sit in the Living Room with munchkin and eat breakfast because he likes to eat whatever I eat. I usually share my whole wheat toast with him as we watch Playhouse Disney together.


At some point the cats will come greet me after taking their sweet time getting up from wherever they slept overnight in the house.


I don't "do" mornings well. I had a couple of jobs where I worked second shift (which I LOVED!) and this reset my body clock to "second shift" time. In the mornings it takes me a good HOUR or more to really wake up.


Sahara settled on the end table next to the upholstered chair where I usually sit. She doesn't normally do this. (Usually she sits on the back of the chair unless her sister has occupied it.)


I looked over at my perfectly posed kitty only to see that she had some "Red stuff" on her face. It took me a minute to realize, that she had decided to inspect the new flower arrangement with Star Lillies on our dining room table.


Our cats are allowed just about every place that we go, except counter tops and "eating" tables. Clearly this rule offends Sahara and she obviously gets up on the dining room table at night. She just HAD to show me that she defied me. I know that only Sahara does this because Lill isn't as athletic and she couldn't care less about getting on counters and tables.


My apologies for the bad photo but it was still dark out and I knew that If I didn't take the photo right then, she would somehow get the stuff all over our just cleaned house.


I just hope she doesn't realize that I've posted the photo to the internet. I'd hate to see what she'd do in retaliation..


(DISCLAIMER -I know that kitties aren't really malicious.. it's just funny to me that she chose to show off this morning instead of following the usual routine..)

More about the Poor Kitties..

I know, it's more than just slightly lame that I'm just posting cat pictures. Especially pictures of my own cats.. But I want you to see the horribly way that they're treated. Truly less than royal by their standards I'm sure...

This is poor sahara having a quick nap...

As always, if you like any of the pictures you see and would like prints, you can find them at www.abounaderphoto.com or you can email me at heather@abounaderphoto.com and I'll find them for you.

The Poor, Harassed Kitties...

Before my son came into our lives, we had Fur Children. Our Fur Children are two black cats that we "rescued" from the local humane society shelter. Their names are Sahara and Lill. They are litter mates but they clearly had different dads.

Sahara is a slinky, highly intelligent, highly sensitive, graceful, athletic feline. She has a Siamese like face, and talks like an oriental breed.

Lill is a big, burly, ungraceful, super lovey kitty. She is the exact polar opposite of Sahara.

I love them both very deeply.

Sahara is less afraid of my son than Lill. Lill has a paw that is constantly swollen due to an unknown allergy. If her paw was better she'd probably be more up to the task of dealing with my son. Still, she adores my husband and I and seeks out a lap whenever there is one to be found.

Unfortunately I haven't had as much time as I'd like for the kitties now that munchkin is here and I really feel bad about that. But luckily they are forgiving...

Above is a photo of Lill cleaning herself in the sun in the Laundry room, far away from my son. Black cats are difficult to get good pictures of because the camera views the black as low light. I usually have to go "all manual" to take good pictures of them.

As Always, if you see a photo that you think you'd like a print of, you can probably find it on my website: http://www.abounaderphoto.com If you don't see what you're looking for, drop me an email at heather@abounaderphoto.com and I'll find it for you.

A bird that isn't afraid of me..

Last week I was fortunate enough to get a photo of one of the Red Shouldered Hawks that Live in the tiny patch of woods in my back yard. It was really refreshing to take a picture of a bird that wouldn't fly off at the slightest noise. In fact I swear this guy glared at me when I leaned up against the window too hard and made a loud THUNK sound.

Our house sits on land that was cow pasture for decades. I am finding all kinds of birds here that normally don't live in a suburban habitat. I have seen in the last year: Blue Herons, Red Winged Cow birds, Indigo Buntings, White Crested Night heron (Only from afar), Green Heron, Hummingbirds, Ruby Throated Hummingbirds and the various common birds that everyone sees like Starlings, Robins, Blue Jays, Blue Birds. etc..

Ever since my husband bought my first Digital SLR Camera last year I've been trying in vain to get a few of those amazing wildlife pictures that folks see in National Geographic. I've been reading and reading and reading and come to the unfortunate truth: In Digital SLR Photography, your camera doesn't matter as much as your lens. A really good lens costs $1600. Thats one of the ones that I'm using but it only zooms to 200mm which is why the hawk above still appears a bit fuzzy.

I really need the 100-400mm zoom which is another $1600. Hopefully next year, if I can find another job when munchkin goes into daycare I will be able to afford another very expensive lens.

On the "SITS" blog friday, they were doing "Open Letters" to whomever they chose. It was really fun reading them all. I contemplated doing an open letter to canon, explaining to them that I want really good pictures but I really don't want to pay the $1600 to buy another great lens. I was too tired friday and too busy this weekend, so that one sentence above will have to suffice..

This week is Thanksgiving and I'm going to be uber busy cleaning the house and then working myself up into a panic attack for Thursday. (my first time to make thanksgiving dinner) So I may not post every day this week. I apologize for that but I'll be back next week with more Blather..

I'm hoping against hope to go to Churchill Downs either Friday or Saturday because this coming sunday is the last day of their fall meet. Hopefully hubby will go along with my evil plan.. wonder if he reads this.............?

As Always, if you see a photo that you think you'd like a print of, you can probably find it on my website: http://www.abounaderphoto.com If you don't see what you're looking for, drop me an email at heather@abounaderphoto.com and I'll find it for you.

Last of the Retirees...

What a fitting thing to post on a wintery friday. Critters hanging out, on a hot July Day relaxing.

More "retirees"....

Stony Ridge Equine Retirement Center

Daisy and Friend

Mocha

Daisy

Daisy

I cruised back through my blog and I see that I never blogged about my trip to the Stony Ridge Equine Retirement Center run partially by April Dimico. April Helped me out tremendously during my equine photography class when she allowed me to wander the pastures of her farm. Even though I have a strong love for horses, I know very few people that own them locally.

All of the horses on April's farm are retired. Either they had some sort of injury during their various careers or they are at the end of their career and were therefore retired by their owners. I find this to be an amazingly generous "gift" that the owners of these horses have given them. It takes a lot of character and good heartedness to take care of a horse in this way the rest of his days.

It was wonderful to me to be able to just wander around a pasture, being mobbed by 15 or more friendly horses. They all wanted to see what I had, what I was doing, and if I had any peppermints. April kept having to hold onto them while I walked far enough away to take a photo. My friend Anna also came with me and we had a wonderful time!

I had a chance in October to go back to her farm but it rained that day and I haven't had time to go back there since. I'm hoping we'll get a bit of snow sometime in December and I can go photograph the horses then.

I have more photos but I'll save them for tomorrow :-) Happy Wednesday!

A rare moment.... (#1)

I'm calling this a rare moment #1 because in life, there are a lot of rare moments. I'm just going to number the ones I talk about so that I can keep track.

Last night, munchkin and I were driving home right around sunset. It has been cloudy for days here which means that photography is a futile effort, unless I want to take dark pictures of fallen leaves. (no thank you!) I had never seen neon colors occur naturally in nature until last night. In fact, I didn't think it happened..

There was a weather front just pulling out and there was very strong pinkish/reddish light in certain places just under a line of clouds. We drove down a street with old, tall trees and all of the trees had neon pink leaves at the tops and the rest of the trees were dark! It was so magical and I kicked myself for not having my camera with me. (it is always a huge decision for me - do I be obsessive and bring my camera with me or leave it at home) By the time I got home, the sun had set and I couldn't get any pictures. Needless to say, I am very disappointed in myself. Next time that camera is coming with me!!

So to console myself for not having any pictures of that rare moment, above is a rare moment of another sort. If you've been reading my blog all summer (and I don't think a soul has until now) you know that I was obsessed with the Ruby Throated hummingbirds that frequented my Black and Blue Salvia bush underneath the laundry room window. I left my camera on the dryer right by the window and I would go check every so often for the hummingbirds. Photographing a hummingbird without a feeder is an extremely difficult task, so I'm pretty pleased I got any decent pictures of them at all! I had less than a minute to snap away and hope that something was in focus or in frame. The hummingbird happened to fly in front of one of the yellow flowers next to the bush and I was able to snap away and get the above picture! I was so proud!

Today I have to fill out and mail invitations for my Son's first birthday next month. (Instead of photographing anything or going in the studio) I can't believe it's been a year. It's been both the longest and shortest year of my life..!

I am not a social butterfly(In fact, I'm a certified hermit) and planning a party of any sort is a huge stretch for me. I've already gotten the decorations but I'm still mulling over the cake and food to serve. If I was working, I swear I'd just hire a party planner to do this stuff...

PS. if you ever want a print of any photos on my blog, please visit my website or you can just comment and I'll get back to you.

Kona Gold

(Kona Gold, Top, Cigar Watching Kona Gold, Bottom)

I don't know a lot about Kona Gold other than he is a Throroughbred. I read about him though and he accomplished quite a bit in his years of racing. http://www.kyhorsepark.com/kids/sub.php?pageid=115&sectionid=1 I think during Kona's years of racing, I didn't pay a lot of attention to what was going on in the racing world. Thats changed now because I have a very good friend who is very into horse racing and Saddlebreds. (and my pictures reflect this don't they!?)

While I was photographing Cigar, they had let Kona Gold out in his Paddock and he was running around like a "mad man" neighing and having a good old time!

Since I had never seen Cigar with his head up out of the grass, I chose to stay where I was and photograph Kona From a distance. I have a lot of photos of Cigar's head turned towards Kona's Pasture. Cigar did call to him a few times, and I have a feeling that if he could have, he would've run the fence next to Kona. It really was a testament to cigar's personality that he didn't get all squirrelly and DEMAND to run next to Kona Gold. (I'm sure if Cigar was 10 years younger, he would have :-))

Happy Friday!

Gypsy Supreme

This is Gypsy Supreme. Gypsy for short. Actually I think his barn name is Del but don't quote me on that. Most horses have their official registered name (if they're purebred and registered with their respective registry) and a "barn" name. A Barn name is kind of like a nickname and it's specific to each horse.

Gypsy has been at the Horsepark for as long as I can remember. He is a gorgeous horse and seems to be very sweet whenever handled.

The last time I attended the daily presentation of the champions in the champions barn, I saw Gypsy do the most wonderful thing. When they were showing the video of one of his wins, and he heard the crowd on the tv, he perked up his ears and stood a little taller and got a little excited. The sound of the crowd turned him into a show horse again for just a moment..

If you go to the Kentucky Horse Park's website you can read the long list of accomplisments by Gypsy. http://www.kyhorsepark.com/kids/sub.php?pageid=3&sectionid=1 He's one of the Greatest Saddlebred Show Horses of all time.

My Pictures of Gypsy aren't that different than most pictures of him. All of the Champions have that "door" with the cross bars on the front of their stalls so that well meaning folks don't accidently get bitten. (not that Gypsy bites, it's just for insurance reasons) I took a photo of Gypsy through the bars because it's so typical of what folks see, day in and day out when they go there.

Gypsy was checkin out Cigar while I was photographing him so I made sure I got a few photos of Gypsy too.

Cigar

This weekend was a good weekend for me. It was fairly productive for a bit of house cleaning and laundry and I finished up an almost 2 year project with my miniatures. I didn't get out to photo any more horses though. I'm hoping to do that next weekend at the Fairgrounds.

Everyone seemed to really like the photos of Alysheba from the Kentucky Horsepark. I was SO thrilled to see him in good shape!! I also got a few pictures of that old Campaigner, Cigar. The pictures of him aren't as exciting because cigar has been at the horsepark for a long time now, and he just wasn't very excited about much. It was just another day for him. This is the first time I was able to get a photo of Cigar where he wasn't grazing. I haven't had time to get these up on my website yet so you're "peeping" them first here.

I really should have used a polarizing filter the day I was at the horsepark. I was just too caught up in worrying about munchkin to remember to bring the danged thing! Oh well, live and learn!


I know it's monday but hopefully some of these retired racehorses will help you daydream about your own relaxing retirement. May they be as carefree and may you be as well taken care of. :-)

Alysheba

On Thursday, I took a 60 minute "road trip" east to the Kentucky Horse Park. The Trip from Louisville to Lexington is a scenic rolling one and it always seems short to me. I know each exit, and the landscape as if it were my own neighborhood. I am always in a good mood when I go to Lexington because most of the time, it means I am on my way to the "Kentucky Horse Park".






This time was special to me for two reasons. First It marked the first time that I took my son with me. On Thursday of this past week I was feeling very stir crazy and I really needed to get out of the house. It was a rare day 74 degree day in November. I can't remember the last time we had those kinds of temperatures when it was supposed to be winter. I really wanted to take advantage of what would possibly be the last nice day of the year. My son is at an age now where everything is fascinating to him and I don't know how many more days I'll be able to get him outside until spring.




Secondly, I wanted to visit and photograph Alysheba. Alysheba was the 1988 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner. His race record is 21 times placed out of 26 starts and he was the 1988 Horse of the Year. Over his career he won $6 million US. In 2000 he was exported to Saudi Arabia to stand at stud. This year, I assume that he was no longer getting mares in foal so the King of Saudi Arabia was kind enough to donate him back to the United States where he would live out his days at the Kentucky Horse Park. I emphasize kind enough to donate him back because many great racehorses that are exported to other countries come to not so glamourous ends. Not everyone reveres race horses the way we do in the US.





All that said, Alysheba looks fantastic for his age. A lot of stallions are allowed to get fat or unfit and the trip from half of the way around the world to Kentucky can take a lot out of a horse.






Alysheba was very bright eyed and curious the day I was there and he looks exceptionally fit considering his age. He also appeared to be very sweet. A lot of stallions throw their weight around or are ill behaved because there is a misconception that if you "train" a racehorse too much it takes the fire out of them. This guy was wonderful. Definitely gave his handler space and didn't get nippy at all.





I was very lucky in that there was another photographer there (who's assistant wouldn't give me his name for some reason) and they were posing Alysheba for him. Normally when you visit the Hall of Champion HOrses you can only get pictures of them with their noses in the ground. I got quite a few decent shots but as always, there is something that I feel I can improve on.






Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures of this Kingly, stately stallion in his new home where he will be loved and well taken care of for the rest of his days.

Intercoms and Squirrels

Every morning since the time change, munchkin has been waking up at 5am. I hear every little peep that he makes through our excellent baby monitor. So I wake up at 5am, and tell myself that he's ok and safe and then go back to sleep (Or at least try to) until 6am.

We wait until 6am to get him because that is "THE SCHEDULE" and I keep reading how every baby should be on a schedule. Besides, we can barely get him to stay awake past 7pm and if we wake him earlier and put him to bed earlier, I'll end up waking every day at 4am instead.

Our house has a built in intercom system, but every time there is rain with lightning it gets frazzled and only half of it works. The half that isn't working right now, is the speaker in our master bedroom. For some reason, my husband refuses to call the company that installed it and bought a baby monitor so that we could sleep in the master bedroom and still hear the baby.

Ok, he bought the baby monitor for my parents to use when they're watching munchkin but we've commandeered it for our bedroom.

The REALLY Funny part about the baby monitor (the store bought one) is that it picks up a local radio station. And I don't mean, a little bit of noise faintly in the background. I mean you can hear it all plainly. The later in the night it is, the more clearly you can hear the radio station. The reason for this is because our "high end" neighborhood is built about 5 blocks (as the crow flies) from the stations Gigantic radio tower. The Tower has been there since the 70's (maybe longer) and our Neighborhood has been here since the early 2004's. So it's really not the radio stations fault.

To remedy this, my husband, who is really an exceptionally smart dude, has put aluminum foil around the upstairs portion of the baby monitor (the transmittor) and the Reciever in our bedroom. And you know what? It's worked. The static and the radio station isn't as loud as it used to be.

I'd take a picture of it but the baby is sleeping right now and if I wake him, I don't get to pollute the internet with my witty drivel. :-)

The First three photos above are obviously taken at the 2008 Worlds Championshp Horse show in Louisville, KY during the $100,000 Five Gaited Stake. During the class, they strip the horses to take a look at their conformation. Now the points given during this portion of the class don't factor in a LOT, but it drags the class out so that everyone gets their money's worth. I definitely did.

The Last horse photo is of the winner "Breaking News" performing the gait, the "rack" which is an "artificial" gate taught to him by his trainer and he's really good at it. (obviously)

The Fourth picture is of a squirrel, doing squirrel things in one of the trees out back. Although the lens I used doesn't have the "foo" to get one of those great, close up, pictures showing every hair in his fuzzy hide, I think that the overall feeling is pretty nice.

The fifth picture is a reflection of the trees on the water in the creek in my back yard. Some day I'll have to blather on about why we're in the house and how much I love my back yard, but I'll spare you today.

*YAWN*

I know, it's 8:20am est already and I should have plenty of caffiene in my system by now. I was like a lot of Americans in that I stayed up late last night to watch the final results of the Presidential Election come in. I have to say I was pleased.

Unfortunately though, when munchkin woke up at 5am (which would be 6am, his normal time to wake up according to his body clock because of the daylight savings time thing) I was under the impression it was 2am. Because of this, I changed his diaper thinking that I had hours before he needed to be awake again and we both went back to sleep.

At 7am my husband, who has to be at work at that time, rolled over and said "Babe? Did you feed the munchkin?".. and I said "No.... I guess he's still asleep". Sure enough, when I went upstairs, I had to wake him to feed him. He never sleeps this late so I guess he was tired too..

I went out in my back yard last night with one of my other zoom lenses that I don't use too often. I have been spoiled by my Canon 70-200mm IS USM f2.8 zoom because it is so big and clear. I thought surely this other zoom doesn't stink as much as I thought it did. I was wrong. It does. It's very soft (meaning it doesn't take a clear image) at 300mm. Some of the pictures look like they might be usable, and some don't. Most disappointing are the pictures of the Mallard Duck pair that has taken up residence in the creek in our back yard. The pictures are very out of focus. That lens has a tendency to "back focus" or grab something behind the subject and focus on it instead of the subject. I'll have to stake out the creek again with my good lens when boy is taking a nap today.

Today there are more pictures from the 2008 Worlds Championship Horse show. The show isn't just for Saddlebreds, it is for Roadster to Bike horses (which are usually retired racing standardbreds) and Hackney ponies. Some of the hackney ponies have docked tails and some don't. For the record, I loathe the docked tails but I'm a photographer and I photograph what I see.

I'll probably have a couple of more days of horsie photos and then I'll have to dig into my stash of landscape stuff in my back yard. I'm hoping that I'll get to Churchill Down's fall meet this week or next so if you like horse racing photos, stay tuned! :-)

Happy Voting Day!

I won't attempt to "wax poetical" about how lucky we are that we can vote in this country. I'm sure that everyone knows that voting is a great privledge not afforded to everyone in the world so we should feel lucky and "blessed" that we can decide our leaders this way.

Please, be nice to the poll workers and everyone in line with you. Please resist the urge to stab the person spouting off about the candidate that you hate with a pen. :-) Please resist the urge to tear the opposing candidates bumper sticker off of the cars around yours. If you can't play nice then you can still play but it would be more pleasant if you're not psychotic about it :-)

Above is a patriotic picture of the arabian stallion "Good Thunder". "Good Thunder" is a champion in many disciplines (native costume, saddleseat and more!) and at the final Arabian Horse Nationals held in Louisville, Ky in 2006, he carried the American Flag on Friday and Saturday Nights.

My apologies for the all of the "noise" in the picture, I was using my old Point and Shoot Camera. (only 5 megapixels as opposed to the EOS Rebel that I use now which is 10) The noise reducing plugin that I use "Noise Ninja" only made the grain worse so I left it as is.

Supposedly there will be at least a 2 hour wait to vote around here today. My husband is going to come home early so that I can go vote without toting munchkin along. I would imagine that 2 hours in a line would be torture for a 10 month old! I wonder if I still have my old "Game boy"......

More American Saddlebred Horses

I still have another 350 to go but these are a few that I pulled out to put up on the blog...